Commissions | bravebolddrama.co.uk

Commissions

Extraordinary Streets: Stockwood

commissioned by
Bristol City Council and
West of England Combined Authority (2023)

We worked between February and August 2023 in Stockwood (BS14) to create a playful, celebratory sound walk around Stockwood.

We visited many Stockwood community groups and spaces, making sound recordings. The sound walk features local Stockwood people telling stories and memories, mixed with sounds of Stockwood people at work and play.

Stockwood Sounds is part of the Bristol City Council High Streets Culture and Events programme.

The sound walk was launched in August 2023.

For more details and to download the walk, CLICK HERE

The Company of International Artists:
GIANT BRISTOL ART TRAIL MISSION

commissioned by
Bristol City Centre Bristol Improvement District (2024)

We hid 11 artworks in various shops and venues in the central Bristol area between 12 August and 3 November 2024.

The aim was for families to find the artworks, look closely, and get inspired to create in response. We shared and celebrated all art made as a result of this art trail.

Families could also collect letters to uncover a password that gave them a 20% off our Company of International Artists creative postal subscription service.

For more information, visit the Company of International Artists website:

Company of International Artists website

The Company of International Artists: Museum Takeover!

commissioned by Bristol Museums (2022)

Secretly, on certain Mondays in 2022, when Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is closed to the public, a certain pair of undercover agents, namely Agents Kahlo and Dali of the top secret global creative agency known as The Company of International Artists, have been sneaking incognito into the museum.

The nature of their activity has been, until now, strictly TOP SECRET.

But the embargo has recently been lifted, and we can reveal that they were making brand new creative missions about Bristol Museum & Art Gallery's art collection for families & schools to enjoy!

There are three missions to complete. They are all free of charge, and encourage children to investigate the art at the museum, and then to create new art inspired by the artwork featured in each mission.

Art will be showcased both on the Company of International Artists social media, and on big screens in the Museum.

<< FULL INTEL HERE >>

The Company of International Artists: Arts Award

commissioned by Bristol Museums (2022)

We received a further commission from Bristol Museum & Art Gallery's education department. The team there were already delivering Arts Award Discover in a Day for visiting primary schools, and asked us to design a new schema to refresh their programme that museum staff and volunteers would be able to facilitate without the actors needing to be present in person.

We made a film featuring the characters of Agents Kahlo and Dali from the Company of International Artists that was shot in a single day when the museum was closed. We also made a facilitator’s pack for the adults and a simply-worded guidance sheet for the children (or ‘creative agents’) to help them investigate the artworks in the museum’s art collections.

The film, which can be played and paused as required in the museum’s education room, leads creative agents through a range of activities that meet the Arts Award Discover criteria.

This format is eminently transportable to other museum and art gallery collections, and we would be keen to hear from any organisations interested in commissioning a similar offer for their own use. Please contact us at hello@bravebolddrama.co.uk to enquire.

Download a simple guidance sheet to help agents think about art

Wild Words, 2021

Commissioned by Arts Council England Thriving Communities

Working in partnership with Mud Pie Explorers, we worked with young people aged 7-12 between September and December 2021 to devise and create an sound walk around Badock's Wood, a nature reserve in North Bristol.

The sound walk includes natural sounds of the woodland, rhythms we made there, local history and wild imaginings inspired by the woodland.

Find out how you can go on this sound walk

The Butterfly Effect, 2019-2020

Commissioned by Ginkgo Projects and Keepmoat Homes

The Butterfly Effect explored what Hartcliffe residents enjoyed about being in natural spaces. Residents talked to us and decorated willow butterflies to express their relationship with the natural world. This expression will inform the development of a new natural space to be created within some new housing on a Hartcliffe site. These butterflies were shared and celebrated at a community event in February 2020. Currently resident on the site in is a rare blue butterfly called 'cupido minimus', which is where the project took its initial inspiration.

Download The Butterfly Effect Project Evaluation

We worked with Hartcliffe Children's Centre, Bridge Learning Campus, students with learning disabilities from City of Bristol College, a football team of Hartcliffe teenagers, Dundry Older People's Forum and adult wellbeing groups led by Avon Wildlife Trust.

In February 2020, participants created a procession of illuminated willow butterflies on the site where the new natural space will be.

The butterflies were created by Bristol sculptor Sophie Howard, who also took photographs of the procession.

The project was filmed by Anna Haydock Wilson of Little Fish Films. The lyrics of the song "Green Open Space" that accompanies the film are also inspired by the words of Hartcliffe people.

Cracking the Egg Conundrum, 2019

Creative Writing Project commissioned by Parson Street Primary School

Parson Street Primary school suspended their entire timetable for a week in January 2019 in order to focus entirely on creative writing skills.

We were commissioned to create a series of walkabout characters that would inspire different styles of creative writing. In secret, we hid a series of mysterious glowing eggs in the school playground. Throughout the week different characters would appear in the school, all attempting to work out who or what had laid the eggs, including scientists, poets and farmers. Even more excitingly, they appeared to have hatched halfway through the week, but who or what emerged from the eggs remains unsubstantiated.

"I cannot recommend Brave Bold Drama highly enough following their work developing and delivering an inspirational and exciting Creative Writing week for our children at Parson Street School.

Their thoughtful and considered design of the week, linked carefully to our curriculum intentions, meant that we have seen the emergence of some inspirational writing.

There has been a real buzz around the school. The way the actors merged seamlessly between characters has been incredible - such amazing talent for our children to witness."

Jamie Barry, Head

A Song for Knowle West, 2018

Commissioned by Knowle West Media Centre

We were artists in residence from May - November 2018 at Knowle West Media Centre as part of their Living Working Making Together project.

During our residency we visited many community groups of all ages in Knowle West to gather lyrics, riffs and rhythms inspired by the community members we worked with. This became a new three-part song which we recorded at Knowle West Media Centre in October 2018. The recording was transferred onto an interative 'Song Station' which enables people to not only listen to the song, but also remix and upload their own versions to SoundCloud.

The Song Station was exhibited at Knowle West Media Centre from November 2018 to April 2019, before going on a tour of other community venues including Filwood Community Centre and Filwood Library.

Hear the original Song For Knowle West

Hear Knowle West residents' remixes of the song

Avona
Festival of Nature 2016

Commissioned by Bristol Natural History Consortium

Our largest community festival commission to date, we worked with over 200 local people aged 3 to over 80 alongside five community choirs, sculptor Sophie Howard and St Peter's Primary in Bishopsworth to create 'Avona' a processional wicker-sculpture representing the Goddess of the Avon River and her song, The Avona Shanty.

'The Avona Shanty was created from people's personal connections to the Avon River. Over fifty individual river stories were gathered as part of our Avona Project for the Festival of Nature in 2016.

These stories were turned into a song performed by a massed community choir of over 70 voices at the Bristol Harbourside, by local Bristol band Red Ray & the Reprobates in Keynsham, and by community choirs in Bath.

Hear a rehearsal of The Avona Shanty recorded in 2016 by members of Big Friendly Choir, Riff Raff Choir and Bring Your Own Baby Choir.

The Investigators
Bristol Bright Night, 2015

Commissioned by Bristol University Department for Public Engagement

Bristol Bright Night was part of a huge international European Researchers Night in September 2015. We were commissioned to direct four short pieces of street theatre that illustrated current scientific research happening in Bristol, and to write and direct a fifth new piece, called "Do Not Disturb."

"Do Not Disturb" illustrated a research project which was happening in Bristol in 2015 about how sunflowers sychronise their internal biorhythms. We took the key elements of this research project and presented it through metaphor as a yoga class for sunflowers.

Theatre students from Bristol University performed all the street theatre pieces in strategic places around the city, beginning outside the Victoria Rooms, proceeded to the harbourside, Queens' Square and culminated in performances at We The Curious.